It depends on what you’re actually looking at. Nearly half of people with acne develop some form of scarring, but many of the marks people call “acne scars” are actually flat discolorations that will fade on their own within a few months. True scars, the ones that change the texture of your skin, are a different story. Those are permanent structural damage, and they won’t resolve without treatment.
The first step is figuring out which type you have, because the answer to “will this go away?” is completely different for each one.
Dark Marks vs. True Scars
After a breakout heals, your skin often leaves behind a flat, discolored spot. This is called post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, and it happens because your skin overproduced pigment in response to the inflammation. These spots can be red, pink, brown, or purple depending on your skin tone. The key detail: they’re flat. If you close your eyes and run your finger over the spot, you won’t feel a dip or a bump. That’s pigmentation, not a scar.
A true acne scar changes the texture of your skin. You can feel it. Indented scars leave pits or depressions. Raised scars form firm, elevated bumps. This physical change happens because the healing process either destroyed too much collagen (leaving a depression) or produced too much (creating a raised area). That structural damage is what makes true scars permanent.
What Fades on Its Own
Flat dark spots typically take 2 to 6 months to fade without any treatment. Lighter, more superficial spots resolve on the faster end of that range, while deeper pigmentation in darker skin tones can linger longer. Red or pink marks left by inflamed acne, sometimes called post-inflammatory erythema, also tend to resolve over time on their own, though they can be slower to clear than brown spots.
Both types of discoloration respond well to sunscreen. UV light triggers additional pigment production and can also provoke inflammatory responses in healing skin, which means unprotected sun exposure can darken existing marks and extend the time it takes them to fade. Wearing daily sunscreen is the single most effective thing you can do to speed up the natural fading process.
What Won’t Fade on Its Own
Atrophic scars, the indented kind, are permanent. They outnumber raised scars roughly three to one and come in three forms. Ice pick scars are the most common, making up 60 to 70 percent of atrophic acne scars. They’re narrow, deep, V-shaped pits less than 2 millimeters wide that can extend deep into the skin. Boxcar scars are wider, round or oval depressions with sharp vertical edges, like a small crater. Rolling scars are the widest type, often 4 to 5 millimeters across, caused by bands of tissue pulling the skin’s surface downward and creating a wavy, uneven texture.
None of these fill in naturally. Your skin does go through a remodeling phase after injury where collagen is reorganized, and this process continues for at least six months. But with atrophic scars, the collagen loss and tissue destruction are too significant for the body to rebuild on its own. Complete resolution of acne scarring without treatment is the exception, not the rule.
Raised Scars Are Slightly Different
Hypertrophic scars, the raised pink or firm bumps that stay within the borders of the original breakout, do gradually regress over several years. They tend to develop quickly within the first six months, then slowly flatten on their own. So if you have a raised scar from acne, there’s a reasonable chance it will improve with time, though it may not disappear entirely.
Keloids are the exception. These are raised scars that grow beyond the borders of the original wound, forming thick, firm nodules. Keloids do not regress spontaneously. They’re more common in darker skin tones and tend to appear on the chest, back, and jawline.
What Topical Products Can and Can’t Do
Over-the-counter products can help with discoloration but have limited impact on textural scars. Ingredients that increase cell turnover, like retinoids and alpha hydroxy acids, are effective at fading dark spots faster than they’d resolve on their own.
For actual indented scars, the evidence is mixed. One study found that daily application of a prescription-strength retinoid gel improved scar severity significantly over 24 weeks, with nearly 39 percent of patients reaching a mild grade from a more severe starting point. But another study using a different retinoid alongside microneedling found no significant improvement over the same timeframe. Topical retinoids can stimulate some collagen production, but the results are modest and inconsistent for true structural scars.
If your concern is flat discoloration, a good retinol product plus consistent sunscreen use is a solid approach. If your concern is pitted or textured scarring, topical products alone are unlikely to make a meaningful difference.
How Professional Treatments Work
The treatments that do improve atrophic scars all work on the same basic principle: they create controlled damage in the scarred tissue, which triggers the body’s wound-healing cascade and stimulates new collagen production to fill in the depression. Laser resurfacing, chemical peels using high-concentration acids, microneedling, and subcision (a technique that cuts the fibrous bands pulling rolling scars downward) all use variations of this approach.
Different scar types respond to different treatments. Ice pick scars are the most stubborn because of their depth, and they’re often resistant to surface-level resurfacing. Shallow boxcar scars respond well to resurfacing, while deep ones are more resistant. Rolling scars require treatment that addresses the tethering beneath the skin’s surface, not just the surface itself. This is why a dermatologist’s assessment matters: the treatment that works for one scar type may be ineffective for another.
One important timing note: active breakouts should be fully under control before starting scar treatment. Treating scars while new acne is still forming creates a cycle where fresh lesions scar in areas you’ve already worked to repair.
A Simple Way to Tell What You Have
Stand in front of a mirror with light hitting your face from the side. Flat discolorations will be visible as color changes but won’t cast tiny shadows. Indented scars will create small shadows in the angled light. Raised scars will catch the light along their edges. You can also run a clean finger across the area. If the skin feels smooth but looks discolored, you’re dealing with pigmentation that will fade. If you can feel texture changes, those are true scars.
If your marks are less than six months old and flat, give them time. Most will fade substantially on their own with sun protection. If you have textured, indented scars that have been present for six months or more, they’ve likely stabilized and won’t improve without intervention.